Last March, the FBI finally started collecting data about hate crimes toward Muslims. It also began tracking this date for Hindus and Sikhs, groups that Americans tend to mistake as Muslim.
One year in, do these communities feel any safer?
(Simran Jeet Singh gives his answer) "Especially since 9/11 a number of minority communities in America have realized that we're all in this together. In modern America there's a new defacto racial category and that includes anybody who is perceived to be Muslim.... on the basis of brown skin, facial hair, turbans, and this includes many religious and ethnic minorities including Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs. And so we've been working together, with different coalitions, to address hate crimes when they occur, to help change policies that are unfair and discriminatory and to show solidarity with one another to show that America will really be better once we're all in it together."
(The interview continue with Simran Jeet and other interviewees, then Simran Jeet concludes the video with the following:)
"We could easily, as Sikhs, say, 'Don't attack me, attack that guy, he's the Muslim, that's who you really want.' But my feeling is A: That's not right, and B: it's not effective because essentially what I'm doing is deflecting bigotry as opposed to addressing and resolving bigotry. And that's not going to get us anywhere."